Job Discussion Forums

[PETERKM]

Hello everyone,
Please help me on that. The dilemma is:
I was offered 2 jobs.
The first one is to teach kids 4-5,
the second one is to teach teenagers 16 - 17.
The money is the same.
What would you go for? What is likely to be more enjoyable?
Any imput greatly appreciated.

[Roger]

O my good Queen, and since we know you as well as her, here is a tentative answer:

Personally, I always prefer kindergartens because they are more humane, less crowded, often better equipped, and those little ones are a real pleasure to be with. That's my take, but you might want to know how the kindies work as opposed to schools.

The short answer is: much the same, with parents wrongly assuming that their little darlings are geniuses that lap up all that knowledge their teachers are supposed to pour into them. THis is pedagogically at odds with how western kindergartens operate; I strongly advise you to do some reasearch...

In China, the parents will fork out tonnes of yuan to put their young ones through a couple of extra years of scholastic torture on top of the compulsory school. Kindergartens offer an astonishingly wide gamut of subjects, each of which costs extra; English ranks top, and CHinese, maths and sciences are close followers.

This leads to a strictly regimented sort of kindergarten teaching, which you might object to. I was lucky in that parents had absolutely no clout over me; where they have they will interfere with your work, demanding you do this or that according to their whims.
They will even want to get exam scores...

However, the bright side is that classes are reduced to no more than 30 minutes, and there are no chimes; often they are decided upon ad hoc, depending on the state of preparedness (children having meals or using the bathroom) of each class. Also, class sizes are far more acceptable; I have seldom seen more than 25 kids crammed into their playrooms.

At primary school level, kids get crammed 60 of them into a classroom. There is a 60-fold synchronisation of activities, learning and breaks, everything done by order ot that authoritative father figure on that dais in front of them, called a teacher.
It is depressing, and you might find them linguistically incompetent for the level that you think is the one you can operate on. Sometimes you have discipline issues. Note that whenever order breaks down, it is your fault since you are a FT.

[tom selleck]

I taught teen agers for about 2 and a half years. It was about 2 and a half years too long. The little ones in comparison, are a joy!
Roger said it right, it greatly depends on the quality of management at the prospective school. Incompetent management can undercut even a good teaching gig.

[Madmaxola]

teach the kids!!!!!!!

[kev7161]

I briefly taught some very young children here in China (5 to 8 year olds) and I gotta tell ya, it wasn't for me. I love little kids. They are cute and funny and fun to play with - - but I generally can't find it in me to teach them. Back home I was (am?) an elementary teacher, but I kept searching for a job until I was offered a 6th grade class.

Here I teach the Senior middle school - - they too have their own set of problems: raging hormones that they can't do anything about as they are forced NOT to date (which is probably good, China can't afford too many teen preganancies), anger issues (thanks to those good ol' hormones), being ignored (in my opinion) by their parents, sleeping habits in the classroom are beyond anything I ever expected, defiancy, lack of respect shown toward their loving (?) foreign teacher - - but these are only about half my students. The other half ARE loving, smile, laugh, work hard (sort of), practice their English - - generally seem to enjoy coming to my class. So, on most days, the "good" students make up for the "bad" and I enjoy teaching many of my classes.

I'd take Senior kids any day over the kindie darlings.

[bradlarsen]

Teach The Teenagers!!!!!!!!!! Did you ever see Kindergarten Cop?

[journeyeast]

Hi, if you are quite an active person and have some moderate Chinese speaking ability, I say definately go with the young children! They are a joy and will provide you with a great sense of teaching satistfaction.

Unless they are devils..

Without the above criteria, (Chinese Language Ability and Being an Active Person) I would point you in the direction of the older teenagers. They will be able to articulate a few of their own thoughts, you will benefit from a deeper level of interactionand they can be your best guide for the Chinese culture.

Unless they are devils..

Heads or Tails?

Keith

[Shiggy]

Depends which age group you enjoy, and you'll have to discover that for yourself.

[cheekygal]

Apparently, most of us love kids. But (all management questions aside) not everyone is capable of actually handling them. It is easier to teach teenagers on one hand because of the variety of activities you can do with them and a different level of communication. Plus it is more routine and doesn't require you moving around a lot. Yet, you need to be able to *get through* to them and set a good example. At the same time Chinese teenagers as any other teenagers have complex personalities because of the changes they go through so it might be quite a challenge to make them open up to you.
With kids on the other hand you would definitely need to do a lot of *moving* and *enterntaining*. Someone would say "Oh, they just want to hire us to have a *dancing and smiling monkey*" which is not entirely true. It takes a lot of patience with kids. And creativity. For our own kids we would dance and jump around Toddlers are at the age where the personality just starts to form and you need to find the ways to leave a positive print on their subconscious level.

I love teaching kids because they love you back unconditionally as long as you show them your sincere love.

So, as it was said before, whatever suits you Think that through, study both contracts clearly, meet with management and make your choice. Good luck